Development of heating device using concentrator solar cells

Abstract

In this study, the generation efficiency of the limited area of a concentrator solar cell was increased by using a solar concentrator and a tracking device. Heat generated by the solar cell was collected using a thermal absorber for supplying hot water or heating. Thus, the concentrator solar cell system provided electricity and heat simultaneously. Tracking of the sun by detecting the sun's position, repositioning of heating device towards the east after sunset, and shutting down of system after sunset were successfully implemented using an illuminance sensor (CdS) and Simulink, a commercial software package. We performed parametric analysis of the velocity, fin installation, and entrance location with respect to the operating temperature of the concentrator solar cell. A heat transfer simulation model was developed for comparing the actual temperature profiles of the concentrator solar cell and thermal absorber, and good agreement was found between the results of the simulations and the experiments.